Engineering Process Improvement Research Articles

Lean Engineering – Identifying waste in engineering chains

Data and information in production systems engineering are the counterpart of material in production. To increase effectiveness and efficiency, waste in data and information flow must be defined in analogy to lean paradigm. For this purpose, the known eight types of waste are transferred to the data and information flow of production systems engineering, considering engineering activities and chain, to achieve overall process optimum. The validation of the defined types of waste using six case studies confirms their applicability and significance in terms of continuous engineering process improvement.

The Capability Maturity Model Integrated as a Market Engineering Maturity Model

This article examined a variant of the capability maturity model integrated (CMMi) through the lens of market engineering process improvement. The population and sample represented a national array of U.S. marketing organizations. Using ANOVA, a 0.05 significance level, and a stratification of urban marketing organizations versus rural marketing organizations, the study showed three statistically significant differences representing the second (p = 0.00; M = 2.90), fourth (p = 0.01; M = 3.22), and sixth hypotheses (p = 0.04; M = 3.15). The second hypothesis corresponded to the first maturity level (ad hoc, random processes), the fourth hypothesis corresponded to the third maturity level (characterized and expressed processes), and the sixth hypothesis corresponded to the fifth maturity level (optimized processes).

Rekayasa Proses Bisnis Sistem Surveilans Penyakit Tidak Menular berbasis IoT

Surveilans merupakan kegiatan analitis, sistematis, dan periodik terhadap penyakit atau gejala kesehatan agar dapat dilakukan tindakan penanggulangan secara efektif dan efisien melalui proses pengumpulan data, pengolahan, dan penyebaran informasi epidemiologi kesehatan kepada penyelenggara layanan kesehatan. Perkembangan teknologi dapat diaplikasikan untuk kegiatan surveilans kesehatan, salah satunya adalah teknologi Internet of Things (IoT). Makalah ini bertujuan mengidentifikasi dan menganalisis proses bisnis yang sedang berjalan, kemudian melakukan rekayasa proses bisnis, khususnya pada proses bisnis surveilans penyakit tidak menular dengan pendekatan teknologi berbasis IoT. Metodologi yang digunakan yaitu business process improvement. Makalah ini menghasilkan desain hasil proses bisnis dari tahapan-tahapan yang dilakukan, antara lain identifikasi, analisis proses bisnis, rekayasa atau perbaikan proses bisnis, dan evaluasi proses bisnis sebelum dan sesudah perbaikan. Hasil simulasi proses bisnis menunjukkan bahwa rekayasa yang dilakukan dapat mengurangi waktu proses, yaitu lebih efisien rata-rata 62,9 menit, atau sebesar 78,77%, sehingga dapapt dikatakan bahwa rekayasa proses bisnis surveilans pencegahan penyakit tidak menular berbasis IoT lebih efisien dalam melakukan aktivitasnya.

Production Planning and Engineering Process Improvement

Production Planning and Engineering Process Improvement

Comparative Study of Urban Area Growth: Determining the Key Criteria of Inner Urban Development

Urban population is steadily growing worldwide, while the number of people in Eastern Europe is decreasing. These two contradictory trends have outlined the proposal for sustainable solutions to solve civil engineering issues that are aimed at implementing the principles of sustainable development and ensuring a better quality of urban life. When considering the problem that is encountered in Eastern European countries, a multi-criteria model for sustainable urban development has been designed and focused on planning and simulating an inner urban living environment. The suggested model has disclosed the social, economic, environmental, and sustainable components of the infrastructure that are necessary for developing inner urban areas. The components have been adapted and presented in three different size territories covering Lithuanian cities and towns. The applied expert evaluation method has assisted in determining the key criteria that should be considered in order to identify the most important inner areas of urban development. It is expected that this study will extend activities that are performed in the field of improvement of sustainability engineering processes and offer guidelines for other researchers investigating the areas of inner urban development.

Status Quo in Requirements Engineering

Requirements Engineering (RE) has established itself as a software engineering discipline over the past decades. While researchers have been investigating the RE discipline with a plethora of empirical studies, attempts to systematically derive an empirical theory in context of the RE discipline have just recently been started. However, such a theory is needed if we are to define and motivate guidance in performing high quality RE research and practice. We aim at providing an empirical and externally valid foundation for a theory of RE practice, which helps software engineers establish effective and efficient RE processes in a problem-driven manner. We designed a survey instrument and an engineer-focused theory that was first piloted in Germany and, after making substantial modifications, has now been replicated in 10 countries worldwide. We have a theory in the form of a set of propositions inferred from our experiences and available studies, as well as the results from our pilot study in Germany. We evaluate the propositions with bootstrapped confidence intervals and derive potential explanations for the propositions. In this article, we report on the design of the family of surveys, its underlying theory, and the full results obtained from the replication studies conducted in 10 countries with participants from 228 organisations. Our results represent a substantial step forward towards developing an empirical theory of RE practice. The results reveal, for example, that there are no strong differences between organisations in different countries and regions, that interviews, facilitated meetings and prototyping are the most used elicitation techniques, that requirements are often documented textually, that traces between requirements and code or design documents are common, that requirements specifications themselves are rarely changed and that requirements engineering (process) improvement endeavours are mostly internally driven. Our study establishes a theory that can be used as starting point for many further studies for more detailed investigations. Practitioners can use the results as theory-supported guidance on selecting suitable RE methods and techniques.

GSEPIM: A roadmap for software process assessment and improvement in the domain of global software development

AbstractSoftware development firms have begun adopting the practice of global software development (GSD). The main reason for the shift toward globalization is the various benefits received by software development firms. However, there are several issues faced by GSD organizations, particularly those associated with software process improvement (SPI). It has been noticed that a formal process improvement approach could assist in successfully executing development activities in GSD. The core objective of this research work is to develop a global software engineering process improvement model (GSEPIM) to assess and improve software process activities in a GSD environment. The proposed model will be developed based on existing models in other domains, an empirical study conducted with GSD practitioners, and an understanding of critical success factors and challenges of SPI. In this study, the first step in the development of GSEPIM is completed by identifying the challenges of SPI in GSD and presenting a solution in the form of a robust framework.

Explicit and tacit knowledge conversion effects, in software engineering undergraduate students

This study evaluates the effect of conversion between tacit and explicit knowledge, and its influence on Software engineering and Software Process Improvement in the context of a small school software company in which undergraduate students participate as personnel. A survey measurement instrument was applied to the last three generations of students. The effect was measured from an interaction of the four modes of the SECI model knowledge conversion using regression analysis associated with four hypotheses study. The findings show that students are able to generate tacit and explicit knowledge in a similar way to software organizations. This study is considered a contribution of both academia and software industry that encourages this type of experiences in undergraduate students and prepares them as intellectual capital with an organizational culture that shares knowledge.

Development of a software engineering process improvement game

Development of a software engineering process improvement game

Incorporating engineering process improvement activities into production planning formulations using a large-scale wafer fab model

In most semiconductor wafer fabrication facilities (wafer fabs), both production and engineering lots share the same expensive equipment. Production lots will be shipped to customers whereas engineering lots are used to support production and process development efforts. While production activities might lead to large revenue, engineering activities result in increased future output. In the present paper, we propose three different production planning formulations. The first formulation assumes a reduced available capacity for production due to engineering activities. Costs for production products are minimised. The second formulation is based on the idea that aggregated demand is available for engineering activities for the entire planning window. Costs for production and engineering products are minimised. Learning effects are incorporated to model the capacity increase due to engineering activities. The third model assumes that demand information for engineering activities is available only for the first period. In addition to learning effects, forgetting effects are modelled to provide an incentive to plan releases of engineering lots in later periods. Costs for production and engineering products and forgetting effects are minimised. The performance of the production planning models is assessed using a simulation model of a large-scale wafer fab including specific dispatching strategies to deal with production and engineering lots. The simulation results demonstrate that the second model slightly outperforms the third one when a rolling horizon approach is taken, while the second model provides significantly higher profit than the first one.

A theoretical framework for requirements engineering and process improvement in small and medium software companies

Purpose– Requirements engineering (RE) and process improvement has been identified as one of the key factors for improving software quality. Despite this, little scholarly work has been done on developing ways to improve the RE process. The situation of RE and process improvement is even worse in small and medium enterprises that produce software. Consequently, the quality of software being produced by these companies has kept deteriorating. The purpose of this paper is to design a framework that will help small and medium software companies improve their RE processes in order to compete favorably with larger software companies, more especially in terms of software quality.Design/methodology/approach– A qualitative research approach was adapted. Four software companies in Uganda were purposively selected to participate in the study. Data were collected using questionnaires. The requirements for designing the framework were gathered and refined from both primary and secondary data.Findings– The key requirements for process improvement in small and medium software companies were identified as user involvement, use of evolutionary requirements engineering process improvement (REPI) strategy, change management, training and education, management support and commitment.Practical implications– The designed framework was validated to ensure that it can be applied in RE and process improvement in small and medium software companies. Validation results show that the proposed framework is applicable and can be used to improve RE and process improvement in small and medium software companies.Originality/value– The paper presents an improvement of the systematic approach to REPI by Kabaale and Nabukenya which is decomposed for easy understanding by non-technical readers and users.

Validation of a Systematic Approach to Requirements Engineering Process Improvement in SMEs in a Design Science Framework

Requirements Engineering (RE) acts as a conduit between the needs of system users and the capabilities of software produced. Because of this, many Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have been tempted to invest in improving corresponding processes. Regrettably though, many process improvement approaches for RE do not meet SMEs' needs and are often hard to apply in these companies especially in transitional countries such as Uganda. This study therefore, presents a validation of a Systematic Approach to Requirements Engineering Process Improvement that can be used to enable RE process improvement in SME software companies in transitional countries. The validation was conducted following a design science research approach where four (4) case organizations were used. From the study, it is reported that the approach is indeed easy to use, understandable and is applicable to all kinds of SMEs that would wish to conduct RE process improvement.

Improvement of chemical engineering processes using systems analysis

Simple methods of systems approach and technical and economic analysis at the early stages of development of chemical process flow diagrams are proposed. Disadvantages are revealed in a number of commercial processes, in particular in technologies for producing pure 1-butene from butane-n-butene fractions, isoprene from isobutene-containing mixtures and formaldehyde, diisopropyl ether from propene-propane fractions, and methyl tert-butyl ether from tert-butanol and methanol. Using systems approach, new technologies are developed that make it possible to obtain the specified products at substantially lower (by a factor of 1.5–3) energy consumption and lower feedstock consumption. The developed technologies are recommended for the modernization of existing productions and the construction of new ones.

Requirements Engineering Process Improvement Challenges faced by Software SMEs in Uganda

Despite the numerous benefits of Requirements Engineering Process Improvement, many Ugandan software developing companies seem not to properly conduct it. This has implications on the quality of software being produced by these organizations. Moreover, little research has been conducted to establish the challenges being faced by the Small and Medium Enterprises that produce software in Uganda. This study examines the challenges of requirements engineering process improvement in Ugandan SME software companies with an aim of coming up with recommendations for improving the quality of software produced by Ugandan SME software companies. A qualitative research approach was used where four software producing companies in Uganda were selected to participate as case studies. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data. The main challenges hindering successful Requirements Engineering Process Improvement were identified as ambiguous requirements from the clients, lack of user’s involvement and lack of management support. The study recommends that for successful Requirements Engineering Process Improvement in Ugandan software companies, there should be training, user involvement and establishment of proper change management strategies.

A Requirements Engineering Process Assessment Model for Small Software Development Organization

Requirements Engineering Process Assessment (REPA) was conducted prior to Requirements Engineering Process Improvement (REPI) activities to identify the Requirements Engineering Process area to be improved. The Requirements Engineering Process Assessment methods such as REPM, R-CMM, REMMF, Uni-REPM were available to all enterprises, but they were difficult for most of the small organization because of complexity and consequent large investment in terms of time and resources. In order to conduct Requirements Engineering Process Assessment (REPA) activities with few efforts in small organizations effectively. We have presented a quantitative Requirements Engineering process assessment model based on Quantitative Assessment Model for Software Process Improvement in Small Organization. It was an efficient approach to evaluate the quality of the Requirements Engineering process execution for improvement of the organization Requirements Engineering process maturity. We present Requirements Engineering process assessment results for four software companies, describe milestone compliance score distribution and compliance score distribution for Requirements Engineering assessment items. All these companies reported satisfaction with their participation. Our conclusion is that quantitative Requirements Engineering Process Assessment model is useful in assessment of Requirements Engineering process in small organization and in identifying the strength and weakness of the Requirements Engineering processes.

Modeling and Analysis of Integrated Planning of Production and Engineering Process Improvement

A clearing function that can capture the nonlinear relationship between workloads and throughput and also reflect capacity improvement by engineering activities on a multioperation workcenter is developed. The clearing function is then used to formulate an integrated optimization model for planning both production and engineering process improvement. Marginal cost analysis using the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker optimality conditions provides useful insights into effective management of resources in a reentrant manufacturing system.

A multi-criteria optimization and decision-making approach for improvement of food engineering processes

The objective of this study was to propose a multi-criteria optimization and decision-making technique to solve food engineering problems. This technique was demonstrated using experimental data obtained on osmotic dehydration of carrot cubes in a sodium chloride solution. The Aggregating Functions Approach, the Adaptive Random Search Algorithm, and the Penalty Functions Approach were used in this study to compute the initial set of non-dominated or Pareto-optimal solutions. Multiple non-linear regression analysis was performed on a set of experimental data in order to obtain particular multi-objective functions (responses), namely water loss, solute gain, rehydration ratio, three different colour criteria of rehydrated product, and sensory evaluation (organoleptic quality). Two multi-criteria decision-making approaches, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Tabular Method (TM), were used simultaneously to choose the best alternative among the set of non-dominated solutions. The multi-criteria optimization and decision-making technique proposed in this study can facilitate the assessment of criteria weights, giving rise to a fairer, more consistent, and adequate final compromised solution or food process. This technique can be useful to food scientists in research and education, as well as to engineers involved in the improvement of a variety of food engineering processes.

A multi-criteria optimization and decision-making approach for improvement of food engineering processes

The objective of this study was to propose a multi-criteria optimization and decision-making technique to solve food engineering problems. This technique was demonstrated using experimental data obtained on osmotic dehydration of carrot cubes in a sodium chloride solution. The Aggregating Functions Approach, the Adaptive Random Search Algorithm, and the Penalty Functions Approach were used in this study to compute the initial set of non-dominated or Pareto-optimal solutions. Multiple non-linear regression analysis was performed on a set of experimental data in order to obtain particular multi-objective functions (responses), namely water loss, solute gain, rehydration ratio, three different colour criteria of rehydrated product, and sensory evaluation (organoleptic quality). Two multi-criteria decision-making approaches, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Tabular Method (TM), were used simultaneously to choose the best alternative among the set of non-dominated solutions. The multi-criteria optimization and decision-making technique proposed in this study can facilitate the assessment of criteria weights, giving rise to a fairer, more consistent, and adequate final compromised solution or food process. This technique can be useful to food scientists in research and education, as well as to engineers involved in the improvement of a variety of food engineering processes.

PRACTICE SELECTION FRAMEWORK

Knowledge management (KM) in software engineering and software process improvement (SPI) are challenging. Most existing KM and SPI frameworks are too expensive to deploy or do not take an organization's specific needs or knowledge into consideration. There is thus a need for scalable improvement approaches that leverage knowledge already residing in the organizations.This paper presents the Practice Selection Framework (PSF), an Experience Factory approach, enabling lightweight experience capture and use by utilizing postmortem reviews. Experiences gathered concern performance and applicability of practices used in the organization, gained from concluded projects. Project managers use these as decision support for selecting practices to use in future projects, enabling explicit knowledge transfer across projects and the development organization as a whole. Process managers use the experiences to determine if there is potential for improvement of practices used in the organization. This framework was developed and subsequently validated in industry to get feedback on usability and usefulness from practitioners. The validation consisted of tailoring and testing the framework using real data from the organization and comparing it to current practices used in the organization to ensure that the approach meets industry needs. The results from the validation are encouraging and the participants' assessment of PSF and particularly the tailoring developed was positive.

Tool support for disseminating and improving development practices

Knowledge management in software engineering and software process improvement activities pose challenges as initiatives are deployed. Most existing approaches are either too expensive to deploy or do not take an organization's specific needs into consideration. There is thus a need for scalable improvement approaches that leverage knowledge already residing in the organizations. This paper presents tool support for an Experience Factory approach for disseminating and improving practices used in an organization. Experiences from using practices in development projects are captured in postmortems and provide iteratively improved decision support for identifying what practices work well and what needs improvement. An initial evaluation of using the tool for organizational improvement has been performed utilizing both academia and industry. The results from the evaluation indicate that organizational characteristics influence how practices and experiences can be used. Experiences collected in postmortems are estimated to have little effect on improvements to practices used throughout the organization. However, in organizations where different practices are used in different parts of the organization, making practices available together with experiences from use, as well as having context information, can influence decisions on what practices to use in projects.